Freycinet Bay National Park to Launceston

Day 336

Up and off on a walk to the famous and beautiful wineglass bay today. Drive up to the walking car park and set off walking from there. The going is steep and all uphill and takes us a while (with several rest stops on the way) but once we reach the lookout is all worthwhile.

Even on a cloudy and overcast day the view is beautiful down to the bay and we decide to continue our walk down to the beach itself.

On a warmer day I would have had my swimmers on before you could say ‘Dip in the ocean’ but today is not that day and so after a clamber over the orange stained rocks and a photo of the wallaby on the beach we continue our loop walk (rather than climb up and over the mountain again) to Hazards beach where we stop in between showers for some lunch.

Continue back up and into the hills, through forests and across one or two streams before arriving back at the car park 4 hours and 11 km’s after we started.

The journey back was actually pretty hard going with lots of ups and downs and although we have walked much further than that in the past we were both completely knackered and ready for a cold beer and a lie down. As we are getting back into the van Skippy appears out of the bushes and  bounces over to us expecting something to eat no doubt.

We tell him to shoo and that we haven’t got anything but he is a persistent bugger and our frantic waving of arms only appears to encourage him to come closer. We finally scare him off by starting the engine and giving it a bit of a rev up and return to the campsite for that well deserved beer.

Day 337

A short drive up to the lighthouse this morning and an excellent lookout over the cliffs and out to sea.

To get up to the lighthouse however you have to ascend one of the steepest roads we have ever been on, it is touch and go for a minute if Polly will even make it at all but she does and manages not to burst a blood vessel so we are all happy. The lookout is pretty good and you can just about see wineglass bay from here so we spend a happy few minutes gazing out to sea before jumping back in the van and heading back down the hill to Sleepy bay and a short walk to a deserted beach littered with orange lichen covered rocks and a thick carpet of green kelp.

Back at the campsite the sun comes out and it is actually pretty warm, so warm in fact that I put my swimmers on and decide to have a dip. Despite the warm (ish) temperature the water is freezing and after a brief swim I am back out and straight in for a hot shower to try and regain some of the feeling in my hands and feet.

Day 338

Leave Freycinet National Park and rejoin the Tasman highway heading north and decide to turn inland towards St Marys and through Elephants pass. The road clings to the side of a mountain giving you spectacular views back down into the valley as you climb finally arriving in the small town of St Marys at the top. You then come back down the other side of the mountain via St Marys pass and rejoin the highways a few kilometres later, a worthwhile detour. A brief stop at Diannas beach for some lunch and we continue on to St Helens and the start of the famous ‘bay of fires’ conservation area.

Interestingly not called the bay of fires for the proliferation of the red lichen coloured rocks but because when the first explorers arrived the natives had many fires along the coast here. The only previous time we have been to Tasmania was for the wedding of our good friends Troy and Bek and it was held just outside St Marys so we were on familiarish territory for once. After a visit to the tourist information we head off to a free camp on the actual beach where the wedding ceremony took place at Jenneret beach and set up in amongst the dunes.

The beaches here are beautiful with crystal clear water lapping the fine white sand and those beautiful red stained rocks everywhere just perfect for clambering over. After a brief explore we retire to the camp to enjoy a speciality of the area in a dozen oysters straight out of the shells with a touch of soy sauce and fresh chilli, delicious!

In an attempt to replicate what those early explorers would have seen (and mainly to keep us warm) we light a lovely little fire in the evening and pull our chairs up close to the warming orange glow.

Day 339

A bit breezy this morning and the sun is in and out as we head off on a walk up the beach. Walk for a few kilometres along the crunchy sand, spotting the endangered Hooded plover (they say endangered we seem to have seen loads of them!) and various other huge sea birds along the way.

Reach the next set of rocks and pause for a while to watch the waves crashing against them before turning back and heading for home.

Head out again in the afternoon to stroll along Jenneret beach (with lots more clambering) and watch a beautiful sunset before lighting another warming fire to curl up in front of in the evening.

Day 340

Leave the spectacularly beautiful Bay of Fires and after a brief stop in St Helens for provisions turn left and head inland (there is no other road). First stop of the day is at Tasmania’s highest waterfall, St Columba falls. A short walk through a dense rainforest and you suddenly appear on a viewing platform at the base of the falls.

The water is flowing pretty fast but apparently after heavy rain the falls really flow and so much so that after a particularly heavy storm huge parts of the cliff face were forced off by the water changing the whole look of the cliff.

On the road back form the falls we call in at the Pyengana cheese factory and witness an amazing sight, a robot milking machine! The cows are free to come and go as they please and the whole system is automated from the actual milking to the feeding and even a robot scratching machine!

The cows seem to love the scratcher and keep coming back to rub their heads and backs up against it and it all seems very space age. Head in to taste some of the cheese and those happy cows translate directly into the beautiful cheese and we come away with some pickled onion cheddar (delicious) and a piece of year old cloth wrapped cheddar.

Continue along the Tamsan highway and turn north at Scottdale to Bridport on the north coast and a huge campsite overlooking Anderson bay where we set up for the night.

Day 341

A quick stop in the Exeter information soon after we set off in the morning reveals a few free campsites in the area and one in particular that looks appealing to us. Right in the shadow of the Batman Bridge in the heart of the Tamar valley the site was originally a drovers rest area and has been kept today as a travellers rest area. The good thing about this campsite is its location. On our way we have been driving past plenty of wineries but still being on my P plates I cannot even have a sip and still drive and so we like to set up in a place that allows us to jump on the bikes to conduct some tastings. This is just one of such places and so after parking up in a nice sunny spot we get straight on the bikes and armed with a map of the wineries head off.

Now this region is well known for its cool climate wines so Riesling’s and Pinot’s and we were very much looking forward to seeing how they compared with some of the other wine regions we have visited.

First stop and not a short distance down the road is Tamar ridge, one of the better well known Tasmanian wineries. The Riesling was nice but I must say we were both a bit underwhelmed.

Another reasonable distance and as the name would suggest at the top of a hill was Goaty hill wines. This was much more like it, we enjoyed every single wine they had to offer and particularly the Riesling.

Final stop and again quite a ride away we came to Holm Oak. With quite a large range including ciders we took our time and worked our way through and range and very much enjoyed the Pinot Noir. Outside in the paddock we also met and fed Pinot the pig a few apples who was more than happy to see us and ran up the hill to greet us.

We retraced our steps (or pedals) back through the Tamar valley and towards the Batman Bridge, half expecting to see the bridges namesake along the way (we were disappointed) and arriving back at the van Just as the sun was setting.

Just in time to light a small fire and enjoy a cheese platter accompanied by a great bottle of Pinot Noir. Not a bad end to the day.

Day 342

Just a short drive in the morning and we find ourselves in Launceston city. A quick visit to the information reveals the campsites are a bit out of the city and so we head out to Hadspen, 10 minutes’ drive away and set up camp. Rather than drive back into the city we jump on a bus and let someone else do the driving for a change. Arrive back in the city and have a stroll through the shopping precinct admiring some of the old buildings that give you a hint that this is Australia’s third oldest city (after Sydney and Hobart). Now we always knew the Boags brewery was here and after our less than successful attempt at visiting the cascade brewery we thought it prudent to call ahead this time. We were told in no uncertain terms that we had missed the last tasting of the day and of course being and Sunday tomorrow they weren’t open! Walking along one of the city’s main streets you can’t help but notice the brewery and so I thought we should at least go and have a look even if it were only going to be of the outside of the building.

We walk straight up to it and lo and behold it is open and we haven’t missed the tasting at all!! We opt not to do the actual tour but rather skip straight to the good stuff and just do a tasting session and so we gather in an upstairs room and are guided through all 6 of Boags beers (by a Canadian no less). Some of our readers will be familiar with Boags beers (it is available worldwide) and we thoroughly enjoyed trying some of the less well known varieties, XXX ale and in particular the Wizard Smith English ale.

Tasting complete we head back into the city and manage (after much walking about looking) to find the bus to take us back to the campsite and with a cold night forecast get the blankets out to go on the bed.